Judges 17. The first appendix: How to lock into God’s guidance.

Title: Judges 17. The first appendix: How to lock into God’s guidance.

 

JDG 17:1 Now there was a man of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah.

 

JDG 17:2 And he said to his mother, "The eleven hundred pieces of silver which were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse in my hearing, behold, the silver is with me; I took it." And his mother said, "Blessed be my son by the Lord [Jehovah]."

 

JDG 17:3 He then returned the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother said, "I wholly dedicate the silver from my hand to the Lord [Jehovah] for my son to make a graven image and a molten image; now therefore, I will return them to you."

 

JDG 17:4 So when he returned the silver to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver and gave them to the silversmith who made them into a graven image and a molten image, and they were in the house of Micah.

 

JDG 17:5 And the man Micah had a shrine and he made an ephod and household idols and consecrated one of his sons, that he might become his priest.

 

JDG 17:6 In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes.

 

Micah had a domestic temple belonging to his house, not for the public. This was common practice for pagans, but it was not permitted to Jews.

 

Micah made and ephod like Gideon had done, an imitation of the priesthood. Also, he had household gods for divining, as a substitute for the Urim and Thummim.

 

The Urim and Thummim meant "lights" and "perfections" and applied to the stones of the high priest's breastplate. It was used as prescribed in the Mosaic Law for the guidance of national leaders. We don't know exactly how it gave revelation when God was inquired of by the leader. It likely answered "yes" or "no" questions, lighting up when the answer was "yes" and staying dim when the answer was "no." Another theory is that God lit up one or more of the stones on the breastplate which corresponded to a Hebrew letter. It seems that God phased out the use of the Urim when He poured out the age of the prophets upon Israel, soon after David's death.

 

The main point is that he made up his own and fully expected to hear guidance and direction from God. The question and challenge for us is how do we hear guidance and direction from God.

 

JOH 16:13 "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.

 

JOH 16:14 "He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you.

 

JOH 16:15 "All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said, that He takes of Mine, and will disclose it to you.

 

The Spirit will guide, but how? Do we feel something or hear His voice? The word of God has nothing to say about this. Christ said that we need a teacher.

 

LUK 6:39 And He also spoke a parable to them: "A blind man cannot guide a blind man, can he? Will they not both fall into a pit?

 

LUK 6:40 "A pupil is not above his teacher; but everyone, after he has been fully trained, will be like his teacher.

 

Certainly I am a teacher, but I am just as blind as you without my own teacher. I am a voice crying out in the basement, but that voice cannot come from me alone.

 

Paul referred to himself as a teacher, and to Timothy he entrusted such a ministry that had to be according to the gospel and guarded by God the Holy Spirit.

 

2TI 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.

 

Power without love is tyranny. Power and love without discipline is childish. All three make a wise, strong, and gracious Christian.

 

2TI 1:8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, or of me His prisoner; but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God,

 

What is key here, and is too often overlooked or not taken strictly, is that the instruction in truth and the adherence to leading must be solely the testimony of our Lord, and not what others wrongly interpret that testimony to be.

 

2TI 1:9 who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity,

 

2TI 1:10 but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,

 

2TI 1:11 for which I was appointed a preacher [kerux: herald, referring to announcing to the public] and an apostle [literally “one sent forth”] and a teacher.

 

2TI 1:12 For this reason I also suffer these things [as a prisoner, this is the last we hear of Paul], but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him [our very souls] until that day.

 

2TI 1:13 Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.

 

1CO 3:10

According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building upon it. But let each man be careful how he builds upon it.

 

2TI 1:14 Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.

 

The source of the gospel and the truth that Paul taught and passed on to Timothy was the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He gave Paul the revelation and the commission and by the Spirit of God Paul taught it to both Jew and Gentile.

 

TIT 1:1 Paul, a bond-servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness,

 

TIT 1:2 in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago [GEN 3:15],

 

TIT 1:3 but at the proper time manifested, even His word, in the proclamation with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior;

 

TIT 1:4 to Titus, my true child in a common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

 

With the truth learned and believed through our true Teacher, the Spirit, we walk by His guidance as we set our mind on His things, trusting Him in faith that He will lead us.

 

ROM 8:12 So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh — 

 

ROM 8:13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

 

ROM 8:14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

 

Putting it together, we see that we are led by the Spirit, and in ROM 8:5, we are to set our minds on the things of the Spirit, which demands faith. The things of the Spirit, which are the things of God for us, for certainly we are not called to create worlds or perform miracles that manipulate matter, are only found in the word of God. We set our minds on the things that He desires as we learn them from the scripture.

 

Hence, we are led strictly/only by knowing the word of God well, rather than only superficially, and in faith applying that word by setting our minds to do it; trusting in faith the Holy Spirit to accomplish it.

 

We must not do what Micah did. We must not make our own system from which we expect God to guide us. It is the epitome of arrogance to receive the means of divine guidance from God and to reject it and make our own and expect Him to still guide us.

In faith we are to be children but in wisdom we are to be wise as serpents.

In situations where we don’t have direct instruction from the word of God, who to marry, what job to take, whom to befriend, whom to separate from, etc. etc. we always apply truth to what we do know, and trust God to supernaturally lead us into blessing and deliverance. God has not allowed us to know everything. Because of this our faith will often be tested, without which we will never discover its power, but He has allowed us to know enough so that we can trust intelligently, so that we are not faithful imbeciles.